Purpose: The present study aimed to systemically summarize the structural relationships among correlated components of second language (L2) reading comprehension to investigate the extent to which the two major components -- language comprehension abilities and decoding skills -- could account for reading comprehension in L2 contexts in accordance…

The Spanish writing system has consistent grapheme-to-phoneme correspondences (GPC), rendering it more transparent than English. We compared first-language (L1) orthographic transparency on how monolingual English- and Spanish-readers learned a novel writing system with a 1:1 (LT) and a 1:2 (LO) GPC. Our dependent variables were learning time,…

Explores the role of phonological and syntactic awareness of 9- to 11-year-old Spanish-speaking learners of French in four components of second-language reading. Finds (1) phonological tasks in L2 better explain decoding; (2) word recognition through the visual route is best explained by corresponding ability in L1; (3) sentence comprehension is…

Looks at reading difficulties among multilingual children for whom English is a non-dominant language and the first script they have been exposed to. Finds that phonological intervention was particularly effective for children with the lowest single-word reading scores. Suggests that the intervention helped to catalyze the fine-tuning of the…

Investigates the extent to which phoneme and grapheme-phoneme contrasts between English and Spanish are associated with word decoding problems in Spanish speaking adults who are early readers of English. (FL)

Reports on a study in which 12 Asian children's performance in reading aloud a story to their teacher was recorded, transcribed, and analyzed. Draws tentative conclusions about strategies used by children in learning to read a second language. (GT)

Presents a study designed to measure to what extent secondary school students' ability to guess the meanings of words in isolation is related to guessing words in context. Finds similarities between strategies used in isolated and contextual situations, but the students also made effective use of context. (MG)

A study examined language learners' ability to integrate information from sentence contexts and semantic decomposition in interpreting novel kanji compounds (i.e., words consisting of two or more Japanese characters). Subjects, 59 English-speaking college students learning Japanese, inferred the meanings of 72 unknown compounds consisting of…

Describes research on decoding and reading strategies involving three six-year-old migrant children learning to read in French. (AM)

Considers whether the development of reading skills in different orthographies varies primarily as a function of common underlying cognitive processes, or as a function of orthographic transparency. Concludes that when the script is less complex young children appear to develop their word recognition skills with relative ease, even in the absence…

The essays in this book reflect some of the major ideas discussed at the Claremont Reading Conference of 1973. Included are such essays as "Reading as Second Language Learning" by Susan Ervin-Tripp, "Feminine Subculture and Female Mind" by Nancy Reeves, "The Home Language of Chicanos as a Medium of Instruction" by Eduardo Hernandez-Chavez, "From…

Analysis of research involving reading comprehension ability in a second language shows that problems with illocutionary force, logical connectors, and modifiers indicate that many students are either unable to draw on a culturally appropriate memory schema for reading comprehension or have preconceived notions about word meaning that prevent them…

This paper discusses a research project carried out to study and compare the reading processes of native and second language speakers of English. The procedure developed for the observation and description of the reading process and related language experience included initial diagnostic testing and taped inventories, a sequence of tutorial…

This study examined reading in a second language among 12 fourth and fifth grade Mexican American bilinguals. The children's oral reading and recall was taped. Oral reading errors were categorized and tallied. The reading performance was evaluated by a system-oriented analysis of recall and of reading errors where "error" was defined as any…